As the bat met the ball, both Favor and Gresham had started to run. They did not realize Merry had caught the ball until Frank threw to second.
Rattleton took the throw, touched the bag and drove the ball whistling to first.
Gresham had stopped and was trying to scramble back to first, but the ball got there ahead of him, being smothered in Browning’s mitt.
“Batter out!” announced the umpire. “Out second and first!”
It was a triple play!
Dick Merriwell flung his hat into the air, giving a shrill yell of joy. The yell was taken up by the crowd, for this was the sort of ball-playing to delight the cranks.
The Merries were fast winning friends.
The shout of applause having subsided, somebody cried:
“Why, you fellows don’t need a pitcher! You can play the game with any kind of a man in the box!”
Mahoney, the captain of the Reds, was sore, but he told his men that it would not happen again in a thousand years.